I mean it being artificial, and just “off” from the proper thing.
I think this goes to the source of Kryptonian powers. I mean, it breaks physics for them to be able to fly, but we accept that. One explanation proposed in comics is that the Kryptonian powers come from a tactile telekinesis - they can fly because their mind wants them to, which also explains how they catch people after dropping them 40 stories and don’t break the person in half with their sudden deceleration.
I think the idea with the peanut is not that it’s “finger moving at mach 5 -> finger hits peanut -> peanut is now moving at mach 5”, it’s more “finger moving -> finger touches peanut -> peanut now affected by telekinetic field -> entire peanut uniformly accelerated to mach 5 -> peanut is now moving at mach 5”.
As far as hitting the bottle, sure the peanut is going to get destroyed, but that’s fine - we don’t see the peanut after it hits the bottle. Would the bottle still break? I think even with a peanut, moving as quickly as a Kryptonian can accelerate it, it would have the momentum to break a liquor bottle. (I’m idly tempted to do the math, but knowing the breaking point of a liquor bottle and the deforming rate of a peanut are going to be limiting factors).
Does flicking a peanut to break liquor bottles make sense here on Earth-616? No, but then neither does flying or heat vision or freeze breath. I think it’s a valid use of Supergirl’s (or Superman’s, if were in the movies) powers.
To be super-nerdy, red K wasn’t a naturally occurring strain. A flock(? Swarm?) of Green K meteors went through a “space cloud” that turned them into red K. Same thing created white K but with a different space-cloud. The only naturally occurring types were Green, Gold and that one piece of Jewel K that Jax-Ur went back in time and set up the creation of.*
The final major type of kryptonite, blue, is made when you zap a piece of green k with Luthor’s bizzaro machine.
(There are dozens of other one-off types of kryptonite–Anti-Kryptonite, Kryptonite-X, etc, but Green/Red/Gold/Blue/White/Jewel are the only types that showed up with any frequency)
*He went back in time and carved a chunk of the Jewel Mountains in such a way that that one chunk would be launched into space when Krypton exploded, rather than shatter like the rest of the Jewel Mountains. He then went back to the present to retrieve it.
< /nerd >
Let’s not forget Pink Kryptonite. Which, sadly, does exactly what you’re thinking.
They did one where he rescued people on the ocean floor: grateful folks who upon reaching the surface explained to Jimmy Olsen that the big guy (a) didn’t look so good down there and (b) was next to a large gold meteorite; when Superman didn’t come back up, Jimmy and the world naturally assumed the worst.
Except, see, what they didn’t see was the red kryptonite on the underside of that gold kryptonite meteorite – which apparently had the temporary effect of letting him retain his powers when exposed to Gold K, albeit as a confused amnesiac who now has no idea why he’s underwater and dressed like a circus strongman.
I can’t tell whether that was lazy or brilliant.
…shower of meteors…
Not the best collective noun to be honest, but that’s what it is.
Hey, one of the few comics I actually own! I actually really enjoyed that because it gave us a chance to see how a “normal” person would start reacting if they had superpowers but didn’t know it.
I know he’s not supposed to show up until a later episode, but I thought for a second that the Flash was going to rescue Cat when she was falling. It’s kind of a Flash thing.
How can a guy who moves fast horizontally rescue someone who is falling vertically?
By running up the side of the building, overshooting her, running back down until he matches her velocity, catching her and then just running the rest of the way down and into the street, then decelerating normally.
Whether the physics work or not is irrelevant–we’re dealing with a guy who’s so fast that he can run through time who regularly fights super-strong telepathic gorillas and guys who can freeze laser beams. Adherence to “Earth Prime”'s laws of physics isn’t important. 
The point is that he does or did…this regularly in the comics.
That’s good, because they don’t.
I’ve been critical recently, but apart from the hokey comic-book “red kryptonite” jibber jabber – which is fine, I knew what I signed up for when I started watching – they had an exquisite moment of perfection in this episode: her complete and utter ownership of that bad guy in a fist-fight. Finally, she’s actually a kryptonian.
What does this mean for the character? Clearly, her nice girl personality (internalized patriarchal socialization) is her weakness, and its effect on her is non-trivial. When she’s the normal subservient girl (who probably actually smiles when random strangers tell her to smile) she gets her ass kicked by pretty much everyone, even normal human beings.
Shedding that baggage and tapping into her sublimated self, she easily (and half-heartedly, even) kicked the shit out of a “particularly strong” alien. Go, Supergirl! I want to see more of that.
Wonder if when Supergirl gets to the bank robbery mentioned at the end of this week’s episode the Flash will be in the process of stopping it? Since Cat Grant mentions him in the trailer, his appearance on her world won’t fly under the radar.
Also, Major Lane should’ve told her to get to the bank regardless of whether people trust her or not. It’s the right thing to do.
Wonder why Cat Grant didn’t tell security Siobhan was now persona non grata last week? (Unless she did, and they messed up.) Bet she tells them now. Interesting to have a villain who hate Kara, not Supergirl.
I think the show is finding its legs for a long run. I’m a little confused, if the military whack job lost all his memory and Lucy is in charge now, why do Hank and Alex need to be on the run? And earlier, why give the polygraph test if Lucy can say “I don’t care if you passed! You’re guilty! Off to secret prison with you!” Should be no problem for the Martian to hide, just make himself into any person he wants.
Winn might be super-geek, but how does he check the typing speed on an email?
I took that to mean that CatCo has keyloggers on all of their computers, so theoretically he could’ve checked the typing speed and characteristics of the email written on Kara’s computer against the usual emails written on it. Kind of a clever little detail to put in, if that was the case.
It bugged the crap out of me that the Martian Manhunter not only erased the guy’s memory, but mind controlled him into putting a twenty-something kid in charge of the base.
The thing with Alex’s interview was that the polygraph was there to help tell if you’re lying, but the machine was not the final arbiter of truthfulness. At the beginning of the interview, they ask Alex if she knew Hank was really J’onn when she was recruited, and she truthfully answers no. Then they ask if she at any time found out Hank was really J’onn, and she lies saying she never knew. She beats the polygraph at this point. But later they ask her a question and Alex’s answer reveals she knew Hank was really J’onn by then. Colonel Dumbass doesn’t figure it out, but Lucy the lawyer picks up on the discrepancy. At that point, they figure if she’s still lying to them, what else is she lying about, and time for super-jail for Alex. (I thought the polygraph was unnecessary to the scene, since the central point here is that Lucy caught Alex in a contradiction, machine or no).
Alex and Hank are still hiding because while Colonel Dumbass had his memory shredded and Lucy realizes that J’onn and Alex are good guys, Lucy can’t exactly change policy on a known lying alien that’s been impersonating the DEO head for 10 years. “Hey guys, we decided to put the alien deep cover agent back in charge, just trust me on this one!”. Not gonna work, especially not for Senator Xenophobia.
With Winn and Siobhan, I just assumed Cat Grant has keyloggers on all her employee’s machines, and noting an extremely out of character email from Kara she had Winn figure out who really sent it. Actually, the thing that bothered me more than the typing frequency was the fact that Kara apparently leaves her work computer unlocked overnight. That is basic security protocol and would be standard policy at a big corp like Catco.
I got a bit of a chuckle a couple episodes back when I noticed that the newscaster on a TV was played by Jay Jackson, who also happened to play newscaster Perd Hapley on Parks and Recreation.
So I looked up Jay Jackson on IMDB, and it seems that his career has been built around playing newscasters and reporters:
And this explains it:
Oh, yeah. SoCal folks recognized him right off. But I just thought it was a bit of stunt casting, since I didn’t follow Parks and Rec much. Cool to see he’s made the leap to fake news instead of real news. I’m sure it pays better, and has better hours.
Yeah, me too. Maybe we’re supposed to understand that the Manhunter erased his memory, and then impersonated the general briefly (during which time, he (Manhunter in disguise as general) gave the order putting Lucy in charge).